British roots key to coach’s hockey journey
New Peterborough Petes coach Rob Wilson once captained Britain’s national team
Growing up Rob Wilson never realized his father had an accent.
The Peterborough Petes’ new head coach was born and raised in Toronto but his father William, a Second World War veteran, and mother Janet, were natives of Glasgow, Scotland. When they came to Canada they moved into a Scottish neighbourhood and most of their friends were British.
Wilson found it odd when he brought some friends home and they remarked that they couldn’t understand his father because of his thick Scottish dialect.
“I didn’t know my parents had an accent. That’s how insulated we were,” said Wilson. “They’d go to the Sons of Scotland Robbie Burns Night in January. Everybody I knew was Scottish. Even my soccer coaches in Toronto were Scottish.”
Wilson admits he was a hockey nerd as a youngster and a huge fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs of the 1970s and early ’80’s era.
“Borje Salming was like a god,” said Wilson. “If it was a home game my parents would let me stay up and watch it but if it was a road game I’d take my radio to bed.
“I was one of those kids who knew the stats of everybody.”
Wilson had little idea playing minor hockey how vital his British roots would become in his hockey journey.
He played two years of junior with the Sudbury Wolves before being traded to the Petes for the 1988-89 season. He was a hardnosed defencemen who helped the club to an OHL championship and an appearance at the Memorial Cup in Saskatoon.
His family was excited when he was dealt to Peterborough. His father drove to almost every game in Sudbury, sometimes getting home to Toronto just in time to go to work. The drive to Peterborough was much easier.
“My mom had diabetes and unfortunately had lost her sight. (Petes’ coach) Dick (Todd) was great and got them seats in the first row so she really felt like a part of it,” said Wilson.
The following year he tried out for the Maple Leafs’ AHL affiliate in Newmarket. When they wanted to assign him to the ECHL, Wilson instead took an offer to join the Swindon Wildcats of the British Hockey League. Wilson had a British passport because of his parents’ roots.
“I was still an import but I didn’t have to go through any channels for a work permit. It made it easier to go there. Teams wanted you, too, because within two years you could be eligible for the national team.”
He returned to North America the following season and spent time in the ECHL and AHL. He then joined Colonial Hockey League with the Brantford
Smoke and Chatham Wheels each for one year.
“I was in the same boat as a lot of guys I knew who felt they could do something better with their career but it was close to home,” he said, of his stops in Brantford and Chatham. “Instead of going to the east coast I played in the Colonial league and actually enjoyed it. In Chatham I played for Tom Barrett, who used to coach the Kitchener Rangers, and I loved him. He pretty much set up something for me with a team in the IHL and I got this offer to go back to England for way more money.”
Wilson joined the Sheffield Steelers in 1994-95 and It was the beginning of 23 years playing, and later coaching, In Europe.
A couple of years into his stay in Sheffield the British Super League formed with less restrictive import rules.
“The hockey was really good,” said Wilson. “It was a very physical league. I enjoyed that.”
Wilson had been to Britain often growing up so it never felt foreign. The quality of the hockey, he said, was better than one might expect.
“I remember we used to joke when we’d leave at the end of the season to not tell anybody. It was like a little hidden gem,” said Wilson. “We were getting paid pretty well. Things were pretty good as a young guy. You got a house and a car. The common joke was, don’t let it out of the bag. Now it’s long out of the bag and the British National Team is now in Pool A (of the IIHF World Championships).”
Wilson played in several world championships and eventually captained the British national team.
“My dad felt pretty proud of that,” said Wilson, whose parents are now deceased. “I still felt very Canadian but also very British. I had the best of both worlds.”
In 2003-04 Wilson signed on as player/coach of the Newcastle Vipers.
“You’re playing but your coaching responsibilities aren’t any different. They do it to save money,” said Wilson. “It’s not easy.”
Wilson returned to Canada in the summers and worked on getting all his coaching levels while also attending Roger Neilson coaching clinics.
“I started to feel that was where I wanted to go,” he said.
Wilson did that for four years before he moved onto the bench full-time. He helped the team move from the Second League to the Elite League where they won the championship in 2005-06.
“We had a very tight budget and we surprised everybody and won. That’s the year we beat out Theo Fleury (and the Belfast Giants) in the semifinals.”
They beat his old Sheffield side in the final.
After five years there Wilson looked to move up the coaching ranks and took a job in Italy with a last place team in Enga. His first year, Wilson took them to second place and then first place the following season.
He moved to Ritten-Renon in Italy’s top league the following year. They were a prominent team in the league but hadn’t won a championship in 30 years and were coming off a year where they were two points away from being relegated to the Second Division.
Wilson guided them to first place In his first season and the second season finished first and won the Italian Cup championship.
He moved to Germany the following year taking over another struggling team in Straubing. Five games into the season Wilson said seven players were sidelined by injury. They struggled and ownership pulled the plug on Wilson just two months into the season and as the club was getting healthy.
He wasn’t out of work long. The Nuremberg Ice Tigers fired their coach and general manager Martin Jiranek took over behind the bench. He told Wilson he wanted an assistant who could do a lot of coaching and together they took the team from 12th place to eighth. They Upset first place Berlin in the opening playoff round before losing to eventual champion Adler-Mannheim.
Wilson was promoted to head coach the next season and for three years guided the Ice Tigers to top three finishes and three semifinals. He was the German Elite League’s Coach of the Year in 2016-17.
Wilson had another year left on his contract and was content to stay but he also has aspirations to coach in the NHL one day At 49, he knew a move to North America was necessary at some point. He has a summer home on Chemong Lake and his two daughters live in Peterborough so when the Petes’ job became available Wilson investigated the opportunity.
“It would have been tough for me to come back to another team but I’ve always felt a strong bond with Peterborough,” said Wilson. “That ’88-89 team was such a great group of guys and such a good experience for me. Also, my daughters being here and having bought a cottage here years ago. another team wouldn’t have had the same draw for me.”